Team

_R. Candler Young is a managing partner and co-founder of DC Community Ventures. He brings close to 20 years in investment management and banking experience to the role. Prior to DC Community Ventures, Candler was a Portfolio Analyst at Glenhill Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund in New York City where he covered consumer and related stocks. Before joining Glenhill, Candler worked at Highline Capital, a hedge fund in New York City, and T. Rowe Price in Baltimore, where he was a Group Vice President. At T Rowe Price, he oversaw up to $5 billion in investments in retail, consumer, industrial and internet stocks, with a focus on small to mid capitalization companies.

Candler started his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and sell side equity research at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. During this period, he worked on over twenty-five debt, high yield and equity offerings with a total value in excess of $6 billion for various retailers including Costco, AutoZone and PETsMART. Candler has built an extensive network of industry and investment contacts spanning the senior ranks of dozens of Fortune 500 companies. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and an AB from Princeton University where he graduated with honors. Candler and his family reside in the District of Columbia.

Karim Zia is a managing partner and co-founder of DC Community Ventures. Karim worked for nearly ten years as an equity research analyst in the media and communications areas at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank in New York City. Most recently, he served as a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank and advised on a number of high-profile financings and M&A deals for media and communications companies, including Time Warner, EchoStar and AT&T Broadband. Overall he worked on over one hundred equity, corporate debt, and M&A transactions totaling over $100 billion. While at DLJ, Karim also worked closely with the firm’s venture capital and merchant banking operations, gaining experience in investing and advising start-up companies. Since leaving New York and moving to Washington DC, he has worked with various education-related organizations and served on several non-profit boards, including EL Haynes Public Charter School, St. John’s Episcopal Preschool and the SEED Foundation. Karim graduated cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a concentration in Finance. He and his family reside in the District of Columbia.